Posts Tagged «north korea»

The restrictions imposed on North Korean citizens are staggering, and most of the country is actually disallowed from accessing the internet. But if you’re a foreigner, it seems that supreme commander Kim Jong-un is willing to let you use Pyongyang’s WiFi access points.

Yesterday evening, North Korea was unceremoniously knocked off the internet by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. This comes shortly after the US government promised a ‘proportional response’ to the Sony Pictures hack, which the FBI believes was carried out by North Korea. While it would be rather funny if the US government was responsible for taking North Korea off the internet, it’s more likely to be the actions of some disgruntled hacktivists such as Anonymous or Lizard Squad.

North Korea was indeed responsible for the massive hack on Sony Pictures, according to officials from within the US government. The problem is, there is very little evidence that North Korea was actually behind the attack — which makes me wonder, a) Why is the US government fingering North Korea? and b) If it wasn’t North Korea, who hacked Sony Pictures?

You know how the USA has Predator and Global Hawk (pictured above) drones capable of surveilling and killing almost anyone, anywhere in the world? Well, stick this in your pipe and smoke it, Uncle Sam: North Korea had at least two unmanned drones that were probably capable of flying at around a dozen knots, and were probably equipped with “high-resolution” GoPro cameras. I say “had” because they crashed while trying to surveil South Korean military installations.

If you ever needed confirmation that the Windows Era is drawing to a close, this is it: The new version of North Korea’s Red Star OS, which previously mimicked Windows XP, now looks like Apple’s OS X. Yes, all twelve of the North Korean citizens who have been granted the esteemed privilege of owning and using a PC by the supreme leader, are now forced to use a Mac-like interface on a daily basis.

To ensure that only North Korea’s finest gamers are allowed across the border into South Korea, the South Korean military is now securing the DMZ (demilitarized zone) with Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. Just kidding — it has nothing to do with gaming, and all about keeping the border secure. It turns out that Kinect is a very good and cheap way to differentiate between animals and errant North Koreans trying to cross the border, and triggering automatic alerts at nearby South Korean military outposts if a human is detected.

Hot on the heels of (reportedly) harnessing nuclear fusion and a slew of ballistic missile launches, South Korea’s intelligence agency is now reporting that Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea is developing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon. This EMP could theoretically damage electronic equipment south of the Korean DMZ, and at higher power levels it might be able to damage aircraft that are flying near Korean airspace.

North Korea is a land of mystery, the details of which only a select few non-North Koreans like Dennis Rodman are familiar with. The nation infamously doesn’t have normal internet access, but the supreme leader graced his followers with a nationwide intranet. Now, it appears the supreme leader has graced his disciples with a domestic smartphone and tablet, generous though he is.

April Fools may have come early again this year, thanks to The Pirate Bay. Claiming to have been rehosted in that most closely held of countries, North Korea, could this ironic story actually be strange enough to be true?

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